“I don’t want to work with her,” Jamie protested, looking at Chris for the first time since the lesson. He sat up a little, dropping his hands from where he’d been almost cradling himself protectively. “I suck in her lessons, she doesn’t care. Why would she? I’m a stupi- I’m a kid that keeps walking out and don’t ever try or pay attention or put any effort at all into what I’m doing, don’t I care about my education?” It was said with an air that might have indicated he was mimicking several teachers and what they’d said to him before, and what he’d heard from the principal on a fairly regular occasion. “Maybe I should just get expelled already?”
He really didn’t like it at school. He wanted to learn, or at least he had wanted to. But the harder he tried, the harder he fell.
Refraining from making a comment about how he was pretty sure that none of the teachers - present company excepted of course - actually possessed hearts. Or any kind. Maybe shrivelled and broken and tiny, like a raisin. He could believe that.
He was quiet again, obviously thinking about what Chris was saying, trying to temper the knee-jerk reaction he had when he felt like he was being attacked.